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“Why We Fight,” the new documentary by filmmaker Eugene Jarecki, raises and attempts

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“Why We Fight” taps into the feelings of uncertainty surrounding U.S. foreign policy.

Reading a newspaper in January 2006, one feels a tragic sense of deja vu. Stories of violent insurgencies, military operations and ceaselessly rising body counts are reported with such regularity that a person can often find it difficult to distinguish one day’s news from the last. War has become an accepted, perhaps even expected, element of the American experience in the early 21st century. But one critical question remains woefully unresolved for some – why do we fight?

With U.S. forces already committing billions of dollars and thousands of troops to the war in Iraq, it seems like the question should have been posed and answered conclusively years ago.

Yet Eugene Jarecki’s new documentary “Why We Fight,” in theaters Jan. 20, shows that the answer still eludes most Americans.

Jarecki traveled to 30 states recording the opinions of ordinary citizens regarding the military conduct of their government. When asked how they construed U.S. motivations for initiating the conflict in Iraq, responses were marked by a consistent vagueness and uncertainty. Some simply stared blankly at the camera and confessed, as one man did, “I actually don’t have an answer for you.”

For those who did muster a response, abstract principles such as freedom and liberty were conjured up.

The filmmaker attributes this limited understanding of U.S. foreign policy to the romanticized memory of the American victory in World War II and the increasing complexity of international conflict in the years after 1945.

“We think of America as fighting on the side of the angels,” Jarecki said.

“The problem is that since World War II, the reasons for going to war have become more textured and shadowed. It is less clear why we are fighting.”

His film attempts to create a bit more clarity through a probing analysis that spans from Hiroshima to the World Trade Center, from weapons contractors to novelists, and from right to left, in the search for the truth behind the U.S.’s military activities.

“Why We Fight” begins with the 1960 farewell address of former President Eisenhower, in which the former general warns of the threat of a “military-industrial complex” gaining “unwarranted influence” in policy-making. The speech, already familiar to anyone who has seen Oliver Stone’s “J.F.K.,” brought attention to the burgeoning defense industry, whose size and influence grew tremendously during and after World War II.

Eisenhower feared that this new industrial behemoth could potentially use its economic clout and political connections with the military to guide the U.S. in its own interest. And its own interest lay chiefly in war.

Jarecki identifies Eisenhower’s address as the inspiration for this film. While conducting research for his 2002 documentary “The Trials of Henry Kissinger” he came upon the footage and was immediately struck by the resonance of the former president’s words.

“I don’t think an American president before or since has spoken as truthfully,” he said.

Expanding upon Eisenhower’s thesis, “Why We Fight” explores various forces that contribute to the belligerence of U.S. foreign policy: the aforementioned military-industrial complex, media, think tanks, corporations, as well as more personal factors such as poverty, grief and the thirst for adventure.

“There are forces in our society that tilt toward war in a rather tragic way,” Jarecki said. “The goal of the film is to shed light on that.”

One of the most powerful figures in the film is Wilton Sekzer, a Vietnam War veteran and retired New York police officer whose son was killed in the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

He unabashedly shares his confused emotions regarding the senseless death of his son and the reaction of the U.S. military. Watching home videos of his now-incomplete family and recounting his quest to have a bomb used in Iraq named after his departed child, he embodies the conflicted sentiments defining the American people since Sept. 11 – grief for our losses and the insatiable yearning for vengeance.

“The most remarkable person I met during the film was Wilton Sekzer,” Jarecki said. “He’s a deeply complex and challenging person. He is someone who makes it difficult to think with prejudice, to think with cliches.”

“The film was forever changed by my meeting him,” he added. “It gives a firsthand perspective. I hope it makes the film more personal.”

While the documentary studies the nature of U.S. military activities, not all perspectives are American. An interesting feature of the film are the candid comments shared by Iraqis regarding the 2003 invasion, or liberation, depending on one’s perspective, which revealed the wide variety of Iraqi perspectives on “Operation Iraqi Freedom.”

“When we talked to Iraqis, there was a disproportionate range of feelings,” Jarecki said.

The filmmaker said the Iraqis’ diverse opinions illuminate one of the most important themes of the documentary.

“The complexity of the Iraqi people defied the simplicity imposed by policy makers and the media,” he said.

“The human spirit is too expansive and rich to be contained in the predictable way. It’s that very complexity that’s at the heart of democracy.”

And Jarecki worries that as the U.S. mobilizes for military actions in the name of democracy across the globe, the nation might compromise the very qualities it aims to instill in other nations.

“Decisions like war – life-and-death decisions – are too greatly being influenced by what Eisenhower called ‘unwarranted influence,’” he said. “We are watching the very heart of democracy erode.”

Nevertheless, Jarecki remains guardedly optimistic regarding the future of American democracy, taking comfort in the thought that his documentary could serve as part of the solution.

“The starting point is better engagement by the people in the life of the country,” he said.

“If we do not become vigilant, we will find that the very country we hold dear has escaped. This is a film meant to urge people to fight for democracy, and I mean at home.”